The Faulty iMac Saga, Chapter 3: We Have Apple's Internal Memo

While Apple released the iPad this week, we scored their internal work order admitting the iMac’s yellow screen problem, and one of our readers may have figured out how to fix it.

Can You Safely Buy a New iMac Yet?
Nope.

Why?
In the last week, 10 readers have reported receiving yellow screened iMacs – the majority of whom are on their third system. Both the yellow/flickering screens have yet to be fixed.

What’s Being Done?
We’ve seen two very interesting developments since the last iMac update. First, Apple delayed shipments on new 27-inch iMacs (but not 21-inch models) for three weeks in what we can only assume is an attempt to fix any manufacturing/shipping issues. Meanwhile, they’re addressing the flickering problem, again, with a second patch that’s coincidentally arriving in “roughly three weeks” itself.

The main points you should take away from this memo are that Apple knows about the problem but wants you to ignore it, they’re choosing to replace screen components rather than complete iMacs (bad news for those of you who rightly desire a purely new product off the line), and again, Apple seems to be arranging a fix in three weeks’ time that I’m guessing correlates with the main 27-inch iMac delay. Oddly enough, Apple makes no mention of 21-inch systems having yellow screens, even though problems have been reported (albeit not as often).

I now am fairly certain that the yellowing of the display is a manufacturing defect involving the distance between a layer of material used to diffuse the LED backlight and the LCD panel. To show a perfectly even colour, this light scattering panel has to be absolutely flat and free of any warping, kinking, or thickness defects. It is this layer that I believe is at fault, and causes the colour to drift and give the perception of yellow stripes, fields, and corners.

This would be absolutely consistent with the reports of horizontal and vertical stripes (a vertical or horizontal kink) or corners (a bad tuck). I believe these defects may not appear in the factory. Rather, with the rough handling the monitors receive when shipped this layer gets knocked out of alignment.

I don’t know what Apple could do to solve this problem, other than a wholesale change of manufacturer for the panels, or a complete redesign of the panels themselves to better pin the diffusion layer.

It also explains why my careful assembly and dis-assembly resulted in the yellowing disappearing. By being cautious, I basically returned the monitors to the original factory state of perfect alignment.

If anyone wants to test this theory on their own machine, let us know how it went at [email protected] Just use caution, as I’ve heard cracking your case this deep may void your warranty.

Quote of the Week, Apple Apologist Edition
“Running a business is difficult.”

How Can you Test Your Machine?
A flickering screen will be immediately obvious. As for issues where the bottom half of the screen looks a bit yellow, you can confirm those suspicions here.

Keep those updates coming to [email protected] I urge you all to tweet this story to get the word out. The louder everyone complains, the less iMacs Apple will sell and the more likely this saga will have a happy reasonable ending.

And maybe, just maybe, Apple will choose to test their new products on someone other than their customers next time.

"Do not attempt a repair or replacement at this time". Absolute rubbish!

If one orders a new product, and it is faulty out of the box, a replacement or refund would be demanded (and indeed required by Australian consumer protection laws) regardless of what stunts Apple think they can pull.

Consumers will hopefully vote with their feet. No company should be able to get away with such ridiculous antics. Hurt their bottom line, it's the only way they will learn that trying to screw customers is not the way to do business.

I think the "Do not attempt a repair or replacement at this time" means they don't know the cause yet so they can't fix it and a replacement option will only result in the same complaint so try to hold off the customer until the solution is known or give a refund. Nothing against Australian consumer protection law here although they are not alone in trying to maintain a hold on the cash rather than refunding. It's just that most people don't know they can insist on a refund (with a material defect or performance/operation not as specified).

I want to see pictures of "fixed" screens before and after, and pics of how it's done! If I can take my display out and reassemble it carefully, and that will fix my problem, boy will I be a happy guy.